Reading in a new language should not be this much work.

Reading in a language you are still learning is mostly interruption. You stop at a word you do not know, leave the page to look it up, and by the time you are back the sentence has gone cold. That is not reading. It is doing lookups with a text open beside them.

PolyRead exists to take that interruption out. Tap a word, get the meaning, keep your place. Everything else here follows from one belief: that if reading in a new language were not so tiring, far more people would do enough of it to get good.

The way through is not to start with the book you want most. It is to read things short enough, and close enough to your level, that you actually finish them — and to keep doing that until the book you want is in reach. Leave the book you love where it is and read your way up to it.

What we think

Reading builds a vocabulary base faster than the alternatives, and it fits into a life. You can do it on a train, in a queue, for four minutes or forty. It does not need a desk or a quiet room or a scheduled hour.

It should also be a pleasure. That sounds like a soft point and it is actually the load-bearing one, because the method only works if you keep doing it, and people keep doing things they enjoy. Which is why there are some things here that you will not find:

• No streaks, and nothing that punishes you for missing a day
• No leaderboards, because your reading is not a competition with strangers
• No gems, hearts, or currency to spend
• No notifications telling you that you have broken a chain

Every one of those is a proven way to increase daily active users and we have turned all of them down. They work by making you feel bad, and a thing you return to out of guilt is a chore. Reading is not supposed to be a chore.

What it is not

It is not a course. There is no syllabus, no set of phrases to repeat, no sequence of lessons to complete in order. The aim is to help you acquire the language from things that are worth reading, rather than to walk you through a curriculum.

That is a real trade and some people will not want it. If what you want is a structured beginner course with a clear path and a green owl, there are good ones and this is not one of them. PolyRead starts being useful at the point where you can get through simple material and want somewhere to go next.

Why it costs money

There are no ads and there never will be. A subscription is the only way PolyRead makes anything, which means the only thing it has to do is be worth paying for. Nothing here is designed to keep you on the page longer than the reading deserves, because nobody is paying for your attention.

It also pays for the free plan, which is not a trial and does not expire. People who subscribe are why someone who cannot can still read.

The thinking, at more length

The case for all of this is set out properly, with the research attached, in the guides. They cover when you are ready to start reading, how much vocabulary you actually need, and what reading with audio does and does not do. They are the honest version, including the parts where the evidence is weaker than the usual sales pitch.